Ah, those foolish days, those foolish days when we were unselfish and pure-minded; those foolish days when our simple hearts were full of truth, and faith, and reverence! Ah, those foolish days of noble longings...

Indulge me, John. Cynicism and foul language are the only vices I’m presently capable of. Everything else takes energy or money.

Scratch the surface of any cynic, and you will find a wounded idealist underneath. Because of previous pain or disappointment, cynics make their conclusions about life before the questions have even been asked. This means...

Cynicism makes you feel smart, I know it, even when you aren’t smart.

His age was indeterminate. But in cynicism and general world weariness, which is a sort of carbon dating of the personality, he was about seven thousand years old.

Constantly exposing yourself to popular culture and the mass media will ultimately shape your reality tunnel in ways that are not necessarily conducive to achieving your Soul Purpose and Life Calling. Modern society has generally...

I find that the critics of voluntary service are all too often those who are prepared to accept such services when they require them but deride them with cynicism and scepticism when they see others...

You have shit upon your shoulder.

Say as little as possible, hope some of the undecideds like your teeth better than the other guy’s—that’s usually the way this business works.

In Paris, where raillery is so quick to throw emotion out the window, silence, in a roomful of clever people after a story, is the most flattering of all marks of success

Haven’t you heard of privacy, or were you raised by a tribe of hedonistic Vikings?

I work hard to stay cynical enough! I keep my expectations of our culture and our leaders low, low, low, and I do it so I don’t have to be let down. And yet again...

As my father always used to tell me, ‘You see, son, there’s always someone in the world worse off than you.’ And I always used to think, ‘So?

Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.

Amory: I love you.Rosalind: I love you- now.

The genius of cynicism is that it is a voice in your ear it does not usually hang around long enough to be interviewed. It is usually expressed in innuendos, passing remarks, moods, cartoons, hints,...

To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.

The real inferiority of women to men is shown by their hate of paederasty, which they regard as unfair competition. Men on the other hand rather approve of Sapphism, as saving them trouble & expense.—Aleister...

Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn’t the faintest idea what the heck is really going on.

I dreamed about the future because that’s what people persuade you to do when you’re a kid, but that’s the biggest lie of all–that you can plan. Reality is, you have no fucking clue what’s...

When you succumb to cynicism, darkness, pessimism and sarcasm you are amplifying imbalance and negativity.

You say that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world? Well I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing.

Voltaire expected that within fifty years of his lifetime there would not be one Bible in the world. His house is now a distribution centre for Bibles in many languages.

I think this goes more to the idea of ‘relentless irony’ than ‘divine providence.

Everyone is a little bitter. We’re born bitter. The personality itself is really just a very complex defense mechanism. A reaction to the first time someone said, “No you can’t.

Tomorrow’s world can not exist without morals, without faith and memory. Cynicism, narrow interests and cowardice must not occupy our lives.

To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being “in the know,” cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit…A...

… drink levels all mankind. It is the ultimate democrat

Better not to find out whether or not the rumorsare true, I say. Better find the other bastard and skinhim.

Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself,’ said Denethor. ‘Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse lay in the dregs?

I can’t bear the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom.

Life is serious but art is fun!

The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun’s just started.

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

You’re such an optimist Kane — that’s your problem. You only end up disappointed.

That’s the problem with this never-ending centipede of lemmings, Beck. You know they’re all pussies, each and every one of ’em. They buy these books to get scared because their lives are too easy. How...

It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.

On revient toujours a son premier amour.” It sounds like a cynicism to-day. As if we really meant: “On ne revient jamais a son premier amour.” But as a matter of fact, a man never...

Every rock-thrower needs something to stand on to have any accuracy or do any damage with the rocks.

I thought back to Meg’s advice about Hemingway sentences—simple declarative statements that showed the truth and distilled the meaning. My first attempt at that had been cynical and messed up. I gave it a go...

It’s when the ‘international community’ expresses ‘concern’ about your ‘situation’ that your situation is well and truly fucked.

Politicians.Their first thoughts are always with the loved ones of the British serviceman tragically killed in action.And whether they’ll vote New Labour at the next election.There’s no need to be cynical, Susan.Why not?You’ve got me...

Cressida: My lord, will you be true?Troilus: Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault:Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,I with great truth catch mere simplicity;Whilst some with cunning gild their copper...

The dark war consciousness and pride have seized upon the weak, with great cynicisms and glib, soulless intellects, that grind away like robotic gears at what they despise and can never understand.

The world didn’t give a shit. It didn’t bestow. It took

[T]he enduring problem for liberals, as for everyone else, is not whether history will judge them wise or foolish regarding the war on terrorism; it is, rather, the way that the past decade has splintered...

Uncouth, clannish, lumbering about the confines of Space and Time with a puzzled expression on his face and a handful of things scavenged on the way from gutters, interglacial littorals, sacked settlements and broken relationships,...

It’s weird, marriage. It’s like this license that gives a person the legal right to control their spouse / their ‘other half.

Jake was close to tears. In that moment he saw the world in its true light, as a place where nothing had ever been any good and nothing of significance done: no art worth a...

Cynicism creates a numbness toward life.Cynicism begins with a wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaging, loving, and hoping….To...